Paul Shone

Paul has been the Mission Man at North Shields Fish Quay since 2001. For him the work is a calling rather than a career.

Paul was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 16 December 2005. The interview took place at North Shields Fishermen's Mission and lasted 14 minutes and 6 seconds.

Photograph of Paul Shone

How the Mission serves the fishing community

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"At the moment we’re providing meals for the fishing community but when that was set up in 1953, it was an entirely different ball game"

At the moment we’re providing meals for the fishing community but when that was set up in 1953, it was an entirely different ball game. Fishermen needed somewhere where they could have a cheap, nourishing meal and there were literally hundreds and hundreds of boats fishing out of Shields, four, five, six, seven, eight men to a boat and for many fishermen home was the mission in the port he was in. And they could come here, they could get a meal, they could play snooker, watch TV, borrow books from the library. They could have mail sent from from wherever they were- their last port or their home, they could get cash transfers, which they still can in fact. And they could come and have a natter with the mission man and if they were injured, which they still do, they’ll come and knock on the mission man’s door, “can you get me to the hospital?”, “can you get me to the doctor?”, “I’ve got a terrible toothache, can you find a dentist for me?” And that, we, you know, all this sort of thing we still do- much of it to a lesser degree, but it’s still there, still needed and we still do it.